Archive Result

56

20120819GRAATB33tb

00:00

Good morning and welcome to “Tibetan Buddhism”. My name is Gelek Rimpoche. Today you have a prerecorded message. It is the continued talk from last Sunday. There we talked about Tibetan Buddhism and particularly the Mahayana Buddhist path and the meaning of Mahayana. Traditionally it means “greater vehicle”, but in the sense that its purpose is not only helping yourself, but also every living being. Your goal and purpose is extending from self-liberation. Self-liberation doesn’t mean you can do it without anybody’s help. But the goal is meant for individual liberation as the principle objective of your practice. The Mahayana is “big” because the goal of that practice is to liberate all living beings, without exception, without discrimination. So the mind is really seeking to obtain enlightenment, because all living beings are needed to be a) free from suffering and b) completely eradicate not only the suffering but also the cause of suffering, plus make the best result of spiritual practice available for everybody, which is from the Buddhist point of view the Buddha state, also known as buddhahood. That is the state of no more learning. That’s the technical word the Buddhists use to achieve the ultimate aim of the practice. Using that as ultimate aim you reach the path of no more learning of the Mahayana path. That equals being a Buddha, a total enlightened being. That is the terminology we use in English. In Sanskrit it is “Buddha”. In Tibetan we say sang gye. Sang means clearing – clearing all obstacles, that is A-L-L obstacles. That includes the direct obstacles, such as negative emotions, like anger, hatred, attachment, etc. We call them the three poisons and its root, the ego – or self-grasping. It is not just selfishness. Selfishness is the result of ego-grasping, such as grasping at “me” and “my”.

When you talk about the gross level of obstacles we are talking about these three poisons, etc. They are the direct negativities. Then there are the imprints of these negativities, which are the indirect obstacles.

0:05

Clearing both obstacles is called sang. Then gye means total knowledge. There is nothing more to learn. If there is something to be learnt it is known to you. So there is no more to learn. That is the definition of total knowledge. That’s why the Buddha state is not only the state of the ultimate, but knowing everything as it is and will be and as it was. That means past, present and future, directly known, simultaneously. Some people may say that the future is going to change. So how can they know that now? But total knowledge is supposed to know what change is going to take place in future, how it is going to change and what it will become. When we develop that particular mind of seeking Buddhahood, it is not simply getting freedom for yourself from suffering and the cause of suffering, but making everybody reach to that state, which requires a tremendous amount of talent, knowledge, information and know-how and all this. That’s why the Buddha level is considered to have everything available and that’s why one individual would like to become a Buddha and what’s why one one would like to become free not just for oneself alone, but for everybody else. If I have that state I have all the tools and know-how and capability and everything. Therefore I can help and serve the best, not just better.

When you are seeking Buddhahood, when you desire to become Buddha and when you dedicate all your efforts to becoming a Buddha and when you engage in every action you take not just for yourself for all beings to be liberated, then you are becoming a real Mahayana practitioner. Your practice is virtue, whether it is the virtue of the smaller vehicle or the bigger vehicle. These are not separate virtues. Virtues are virtues, wisdom is wisdom, compassion is compassion. But Mahayana compassion is focused on all living beings. It is for the purpose of all living beings. And that’s why it is becoming important. So the doorway to the Mahayana path is the development of what we technically call “bodhimind”. It is sort of Buddha’s mind, the mind that seeks the achievement of the Buddha level.

0:10

Again, it is the same thing, whether it is the Hinayana path or the Mahayana path. I am purposely using the term “Hinayana”, not because I am looking down, but in order to clarify. “Theravada” is the politically correct terminology. When you use “Hinayana” it is politically incorrect language, because sometimes people misinterpret that as saying that hina means small, therefore it is small vehicle whereas “I am the big vehicle”. So the big one is looking down. But that is a misinterpretation and sometimes people do that. That’s why I say that it is politically incorrect language. But that is the original language. Big and small in this context is not superior or inferior quality. It is points to the focal point. One is to liberate oneself and the other is to liberate all beings. That’s where the difference between small and big really is. It is not that the big one is superior and the small one inferior. Still people misunderstand, that’s why I call it politically incorrect language.

THE FIVE PATHS

So whether it is the small or big vehicle, Theravada or Mahayana, there are five stages. They are really five paths, or five roads. Step one will be the accumulation of merit. The major purpose is to purify our negativities and build positive actions, like fortune, etc, as much as we can. That is stage one. Stage two is the action stage. Actually you are taking direct action to see the ultimate truth of what is what and what all things are. Within that there are four levels. Level 1 is that you try to establish yourself in the practice. Traditionally that is called “heat”. The example is this: when you want to make a fire out of wood twigs you have to rub them together. This is the example from 2600 years ago. There was no instant light, no gas stoves, no lighters. Probably they didn’t smoke at all at that time. So they had to make fire out of materials in nature. Either you make it by hitting rocks or pieces of metal against each other or you rub wooden twigs against each other by hand. That will develop fire. If you do that – maybe it’s like broken Chinese chop sticks rubbed together – that will develop heat, the beginning of fire developing. You begin to pick up a little heat. That is the example of getting established in the practice itself. Then you get to a higher level, traditionally called “peak”. That’s like a mountain peak. That means your efforts at seeing the truth are getting a little better, not just established. In the example, that means you are rubbing the twigs and you not only get heat, but it is really getting hot. Your hands may be getting hot. Then comes the stage of “patience”. You still have to be patient and continuously put in efforts.

When you reach to that level it is not out of place to mention here that you reach a level of being immune from the lower realms. When you believe in reincarnation, a rebirth can take place in suffering areas. So now you are immune from taking rebirth in hell realms or hungry ghost – or animal realms. You are not going to be reborn there, unless you deliberately want to be born there. If you deliberately put efforts in to be born there in order to serve people, you can. Other than that it is then very hard to take rebirth in there. That’s why I call that an “immune state.” The traditional teachings say that if you obtain the level of “patience” you will not go to hell at all. That’s really what it is.

Then comes the fourth stage within the path of action, called “best of dharma”. That means the highest level you can gain at that path and that will lead you to the third path, the path of seeing. Seeing what? Seeing the truth face to face, directly, eye to eye. You are completely absorbed, so much so that there is probably no dualistic perception. You, the observer and what you observe, are almost merging into oneness, like water in water, or milk into milk. There is no separation. It is almost like merging completely. It is that much direct encounter with the truth itself. Technically, in Buddhist teachings they call that the “truth of emptiness.”

0:20

There is no other thing to be seen. It is a total, huge, void state. The fourth path thereafter will be the path of meditation. Whatever you have seen and experienced, you meditate on that. What does that meditation do? It makes it become the actual character of the individual. In other words, what you meditate, the subject you engage in and yourself, almost become the subject you are meditating on. It becomes the character of the individual. That is why perfect mediation will merge the individual. During the path of seeing you see no other phenomena, except the truth. So it is almost like merging. But still at this point it has not become the character of the individual. So meditation will do this. Once you are able to completely merge together, then you have reached the stage of no more learning or Buddhahood. On the Mahayana path it is the Buddha level, on the Hinayana 5th path it is the arhat stage, ordinary enlightenment. The mahayhana 5th path is called total or extraordinary enlightenment. This is the goal and these are the stages and that’s how it will go.

Here I am talking more from the wisdom point of view, because wisdom of emptiness here is the sharpest weapons that Buddhists have to encounter and eradicate all negativities and their imprints, everything within us. Yet that wisdom alone is not enough. Traditional Buddhist teachers, particularly the Indian Mahapundits, used to give the metaphor of a huge, eagle-like bird crossing the ocean. When they have to swing far away and cut across quickly they need two wings. If you only have one wing you will be circling around and not going straight and not cutting across. You will be circling like the Australians throw that little wooden boomerang. When you throw that it goes somewhere but circles back to the person who has thrown it. So this is going beyond. Those of you who are familiar with Buddhist terminology will hear “gone beyond” at lot. You will know the words GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. Actually it is correct I brought that up, because the first GATE is the first path, the path of accumulation of merit. The second GATE is the path of action. PARAGATE is the path of seeing and PARASAMGATE is the path of meditation and BODHI SOHA is the path of no more learning.

0:25

I don’t know whether that is called mantra or yantra or dharani. Probably it is a dharani. In Sanskrit it has been used by the early American teachers and great masters, particularly during the periods of the beatnik poets, such as the late Allen Ginsberg. All their poetry had these words in them everywhere. Even their performance had people acting and functioning within GATE GATE PARAGATE PARASAMGATE BODHI SOHA. Actually that particular dharani is referring to the five paths that I just mentioned. SOHA means “established”. So then these five paths are established within my nature. That means actually that Buddha’s path becomes my character. It fits within this. That’s what SOHA will boil down to, that’s the bottom line. Nobody will translate that way. That would be an improper translation. However, the bottom line message really is this: that this may be established within me. That means that this becomes my character. So there is no separation between me and this character. That is what SOHA really means. You have to understand it that way. Whether it is the Hindu pundits or the Tibetan Buddhists using SOHA, the meaning is really that.

So the birds need two wings to cross and the second wing is the wing of love and compassion. The other wing is the wing of wisdom. The wing of love/compassion is really the ultimate, unlimited, unconditional love and compassion, which we technically call bodhimind. I did talk about the five paths earlier during the Theravada or Hinayana level. It is the same name, but the meaning is slightly different, although the wisdom of the Hinayana and Mahayana is no different. But the bodhimind is the one that makes the difference.

0:30

So love and compassion is the other major, major with, the major path. These two are the major wings. Love/compassion is very much the Mahayana path. Simply by saying “love” and “compassion” it will not become compassion, nor love. Sometimes in Tibet, the place where I come from, at that time it was very much a Buddhist country and a Buddhist time, total devotion, total dedication. The major purpose of living was totally for that. That’s where I come from. There was so much emphasis on love, compassion and care. That can sometimes be overly used, so that is almost becomes a buzz word. When that happens, the original meaning of real care, real love, real feeling of compassion is somehow a little weaker and there is so much lip service and there is so much “poor thing”, “how sad” and so on that is becomes common language. A lot of people will say that without meaning it. They may even close their eyes and pretend that they can’t see. The feeling that they express outside physically is not really heartfelt. In other words, there is no feeling from the gut. It all becomes words. When it doesn’t come from the gut, it is not genuine, not real, not true. It just becomes show biz. There is that difference between heart, mouth and gesture.

When that happens it is one of the biggest problems of the practice here. So whatever little compassion, love and care you have, these heart felt feelings must correspond with the expressions that you use by words and gestures. Politicians may act in different ways. That’s because they are politicians. I don’t mean politicians are bad, but that’s my reading of many. There are great politicians, no doubt about it, but sometimes my readings of some politicians are like that – because they are called politicians. So it should be heart felt. DEVELOPING HEART FELT COMPASSION Heart felt feelings of compassion will not come, unless you have love. Love will not come, unless you have appreciation and admiration of the individual or people. Admiration and appreciation will not come unless you see the qualities of the individual.

0:35

It is something you admire. We like celebrities, like movie actors. We like how they act and whatever actions they do. We like them, we admire them. So we love them. When they do something wrong we get disappointed. It is the same thing with people who are playing sports, like the football guys or basketball guys. First we see them play. Then we like them. Then we enjoy them. Then we admire them. Then we love them. That’s exactly the same thing. It is the process of the human mind. It is the same thing. In order to have heartfelt compassion we must have love. In order to love we must have admiration and appreciation. To appreciate you have to see the qualities. If you see the faults of the individual all the time you won’t be able to develop admiration or appreciation. Our mind is such that we make a huge difference between enemies and me and me and my enemies and me and my friends. We have that huge difference between “me and others” and even between “me and you” sometimes. These huge unequal feelings we have are our challenge number one. From the Buddhist point of view they call it an obstacle. But actually it is a challenge, so much so that this challenge seems to be very true, especially with the background of our culture, our people’s way of thinking.

This challenge seems to be very genuine. If anyone says otherwise, it is almost going against society’s norms. Our society is such that this is the way we are supposed to live. This is how we are taught to function in our life. This is our education, really focused on how I can be better than you.

0:40

How is my special thing better than yours? It is our actual way of life. Everything in our life is competition. When there is a job available you apply and nowadays in this economy for one job there will be ten or even many more applications. So you are competing. The person who is selecting will ask you, “Why you? What is your specialty that the others don’t have?” It becomes a competition, which is very, very strong within our culture. It is almost the character of our life. Why I am better? Everybody does that, even in the fields of music, sports or movie acting, including teachers and students. Everybody is trying to have unique qualities that the others don’t have, so that “I am better than the others.” That is our character. So the compassion and love – oriented society, that special character, is equanimity, me and you, my enemy and my friend. That is the principle of democracy. However, we don’t get it. Somehow we are totally engaged in competition. “I am better than you. I have to be, otherwise I die.” That’s what people say, right?

This is our No 1 challenge. The truth is that we are equal. We use words like equality or equanimity. That is step one. Compassion without love is ineffective. Love without admiration is not possible. Love without appreciation is not possible. Appreciation is not going to be there when you see only faults. You must see certain qualities. If you start looking from the quality- point of view, everyone has general and specific unique qualities. People have them. We simply don’t see them, because we don’t want to see them. We don’t want to look at them. We want to see their faults so that we can say, “I am better”. Particularly this year is election year. Now we see this so much. Election becomes like entertainment. By entertaining they try to pull each and every individual to one side or the other side. Equality, equanimity, the principle of democracy is gone. That’s also why all the tyrants and dictators become powerful and successful. That’s how even Hitler became successful during his period of time – because of you and me. He was bashing the Jews and built up the superior feelings of one group in society and that’s how they misused that to increase their power. They misused people’s kindness and compassion and feelings that way.

0:45

That’s how everybody else did it, Stalin, Mao and Saddam. This is what Gaddhafi did and that is what the Syrian leader Assad may be doing. Basically, it is the opposite of equality, the opposite of democracy. This is the same thing. The enemy of compassion is the enemy of democracy. This is our biggest challenge. I will continuously talk about this also in the next Sunday talk. Thank you.

0:46 end